Food Smokers.

[spider8]

Hi Folks.
I'm thinking about getting a stove-top food smoker and wondered if any of you have any experience of these contraptions? There's one in Lakeland Ltd that looks good but there are also the rectangular ones about too. Do they work and what were the results like etc.? Thanks.

[Odsox]

I have one of the rectangular ones designed for smoking fish as you catch them.
It is designed to be used with a meths burner, so not necessarily relevant for you.
It makes wonderful hot smoked fish especially the oily types like mackerel, salmon & trout, and I would replace mine in a instant if it broke just for smoked fish alone.
Smoked home made sausages are good too, but other meats like chicken I find gets a hard glaze on the surface and the meat is very dry, although I have never tried marinading chicken before smoking so that might be the answer, but we just tend to stick to fish.

[grahamhobbs]

Odsox, with the Lakeland smoker you put a bowl of water on top of the wood chips and under the grill with the meat, keeping the chicken moist and preventing the glaze you spoke of. Could you adapt yours?

[spider8]

Grahamhobbs, do you have one of these Lakeland smokers - what do you think of it?

[Carltonian Man]

I use an old sweets tin (the sort you get at Christmas) and smoke food for flavour rather than preserving.

Find a tin with a close fitting lid and drill or with a nail knock a 6mm hole in the lid.
Inside, the food tray needs to stand away from the base of the tin by at least an inch so make a wire stand (from a coat hanger) or alternatively you could use three pieces of copper pipe, three large bolts etc.
Before smoking food for the first time place the tin minus the lid over a gas and turn up the heat to burn off the ink and varnish from the base. This bit smells bad so I did it outside over a camping gas. In burning off the tin will get far hotter than it ever will during normal use.
To use, rasp your wood of choice (I use a piece of windfall oak) enough to give a good even covering of rough dust across the bottom of the tin. Place food on a shallow tin, oven proof plate or similar and rest this on the wire rack inside the smoking tin. The food will smoke from the top so it's best placed in a single layer. The food tray needs to be slightly smaller in diameter than the tin to allow the smoke to flow up and around the edges. Fit the lid and place over a medium gas. Experiment but generally smoke should seep from the hole after about 20 seconds. Give it a further 30 seconds then turn the heat off. Leave it to stand for 15 minutes but don't be tempted to lift the lid. Smoking like this produces very little excess smoke and doesn't present a problem indoors.
After 15 minutes remove the food and (important bit) put it in the fridge for at least an hour to allow the flavours to mellow and round-off.
Because of the low temperatures involved this method is ideal for smoking all the usual stuff plus sliced onion, garlic, mushroom, cooked shellfish and cheese. (goes great with horseradish sauce).

For a stronger flavour leave the gas on longer or give it a second smoking.

Hope you enjoy
Martin

[Odsox]

Odsox, with the Lakeland smoker you put a bowl of water on top of the wood chips and under the grill with the meat, keeping the chicken moist and preventing the glaze you spoke of. Could you adapt yours?

Thanks for that. Yes I could easily do that, there is plenty of room in the base for a small bowl.
I will have to try it sometime soon, it never occurred to me to smoke and steam at the same time.

[spider8]

Thank you so much for that Carltonian Man. We had wondered about making one but hadn't really looked into it in too much depth but your instructions were great. Funny but I asked on Freecycle for unwanted sweet/biscuit tins for seed packet storage and I was given loads of them so I'm half way there. We have loads of mackerel in the freezer (hubby just started fishing) so plenty to smoke. Thanks very much.